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Ability™ Platform - FAQ

About

What is the ABB Ability™ Platform?

The ABB Ability™ Platform is a set of technologies and capabilities (analytics, Single Sign On (SSO), UI, marketplace, etc.) that enables ABB to build digital solutions more quickly and efficiently. The platform is a subset of the overall "ABB Ability™" category. ABB does not sell the platform; we sell the solutions created. For example, ABB Ability™ Genix or ABB Ability™ Energy Manager. The former is a scalable, analytical, and AI-driven platform and suite that makes data utilization easier. The latter provides a real-time understanding of your energy consumption and identifies areas of improvement. These solutions rely on the platform to provide core services to support these vertical solutions.

What exactly is ABB Ability™?

ABB Ability™ is a name/brand we give to a set of industry digital solutions. The solutions are constantly being built on.

What does PaaS stand for?

Platform-as-a-Service = PaaS
Microsoft Azure is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). This platform serves as a set of globally distributed data centers and software that Microsoft has developed on top of the hardware to do things like store data, give you tools for machine learning, etc. to build digital solutions. The ABB Ability™ Platform is also a PaaS for our Business’s to build solutions on.

Is the ABB Ability™ Platform only a cloud platform?

No, actually, it provides components in areas all the way from device to edge to the cloud.

What is edge computing?

Most control or automation systems run “on-premises” in the customer’s plant or factory. With the advent of cloud computing, some data and functionality will migrate offsite to a remote data center (the cloud). However, due to latency, data volumes, or mission-criticality, there will always be a need to have systems run on-premises. To satisfy this need, we use edge devices. This is increasingly called edge computing.

What is an architectural control point?

When you look at a complex system (a factory), you usually find that there is a piece of technology in those systems that essentially controls, coordinates, or prioritizes pretty much everything inside that system. To do well in digitalization, you need to find those control points – the piece of technology that determines the value of everything else. In new systems, electrical distributed control systems in smart buildings or EV chargers are architectural control points. This allows ABB to pull more value from that data and to disrupt others that are trying to supply value to the other pieces of that system.

What is a third-party cloud?

A third party cloud refers to another cloud that we communicate with via the cloud-to-cloud interface.

Where can I find a wiki/descriptions of the terminology used?

Please refer to the glossary

What is a digital twin and how does it benefit the customer?

A digital twin is a digital replica of a product, system, device, asset, etc. that can then be virtually manipulated to help reduce real-world errors and failures. The customer's benefit is being able to save time and effort on potential real-world losses.

Can you provide more details about IIoT in General and the Digital Twin advantages?

Introduction to the Digital Twin as part of an IIoT strategy Webinar

Is there a product development program for Ability™ enabled products?

Product development is driven by the businesses/divisions. The digital organization supports development by providing both training and developer support. Please contact the client success team (CST) for more information.

What is a Managed Environment?

A managed environment is one where the business does not need to be concerned with the ongoing upkeep of the system. Activities included in the managed environment include security, access management, operating and infrastructure patches, monitoring of system performance and activities, notification to the business in the event of issues such as no data being received from the site.

Can I see the data on the platform on my mobile phone?

If you are a validated user on the system and are using a standard platform visualization, you will have access to the standard platform displays and any custom displays that have been built for your business, and you have been granted access to. Displays built using the platform are HTML5 compatible and can be viewed on any modern device with a web browser.

Why would I want to use a Managed Environment?

Having a managed environment has many benefits, including:

• Managed Operations. The system, communications, and data are monitored on a 24x7 basis, minimizing downtime and ensuring continued operations. Operating System updates and appropriate patches are evaluated and applied.
• Managed Security. Security is one of the most extensive requirements for the platform. It requires specialized knowledge and constant monitoring. User level security is managed. Secure, authenticated and encrypted security is applied to all communications. Security patches need to be evaluated and quickly deployed, again with minimal disruption to the overall platform.
• Managed Applications. Supporting the on-boarding of new businesses, sites and devices to the platform, while developing and deploying and maintaining value-add applications within the platform.

The result is a faster time to market, less operational cost and less risk. The business provides the connection to the device, the rest of the infrastructure is set up and maintained, without the need for the business to invest in training or resources.

Is the platform extensible? Can customers add their own KPI’s to our platform?

Yes, Platform is extensible in many ways. Each Business Area/Division will determine how they can expose capabilities to add KPIs into their solutions, the platform can support ingestion of any KPIs coming from Edge or directly connected devices. Additionally, data can be ingested from other systems.

Can we get a copy of the Data Manifesto mentioned in ABB Ability™ Platform Introduction webinar?

The data manifesto was written by Guido Jouret when he first joined the company in 2017. ABB was the first supplier to clearly state what the expectations of Customers should be with respect to their data. It was published in Forbes Magazine in April, 2017. I am not aware of any other vendor that has explicitly provided a “Data Bill of Rights” for their solutions.

Platform Components and Services

What is the ABB Ability™ cloud?

The ABB Ability™ cloud is our common cloud (a key component of the platform), based on Microsoft Azure, combining ABB, Microsoft, and third-party web services.

Can we include external devices into our cloud/platform?

Yes, businesses and divisions are able to directly connect devices to the platform as they see fit. However, to ensure a secure data path from on-premises customer systems to their cloud solutions ABB Minimum Cybersecurity Requirements (MCSR) must be met. Please refer to reference implementation for devices that exist and can be applied to enable this.

Does the platform support multitenancy?

The Ability™ Platform today supports multitenancy. Data stored in the platform is securely segregated by tenant/customer.

Is the Ability™ Edge ready for the market?

The key thing to understand here is that the Digital team provides the Ability™ edge software to divisions, who then add their own software functionality. They then combine that with hardware that’s appropriate for their applications and market segments and deliver a complete edge gateway to their customers in whatever way makes sense to them. There is no ‘single’ Ability™ gateway. Also, these typically are not general-purpose computers. They’re usually industrial or commercial grade machines appropriate for their environments.

Who do I contact to use the ABB edge for further development?

We recommend that you contact your Business or Division Digital Architect

How does the platform interact with edge devices or the cloud?

A smart device (a piece of hardware with a computer inside and some software) may talk directly to the cloud, but more often than not, these computer devices go through a gateway also called an edge device. That device is a computer that runs some application which can control things or summarize or act as a point of escalation to the cloud. A full-blown solution typically looks like: a smart device, an edge gateway, and then the cloud.

Does data collection from the edge to the ICS slow PLC/DCS processing?

Not at all. The fundamental design criteria of the data collected from any source system is not to slow the underlying source system PLC/DCS/Historian or any device. Any source system that is natively enabled for digitalization also ensures that the read function for data collection is processed in a thread that does not load the main control loops.

Can the edge device send data back to an internal ABB server?

The edge is designed to process and report data to the connected Azure cloud instance in a secure manner where this data can be further processed or consumed by cloud services running on behalf of the customer. If the data should be available to ABB, this must be approved by the customer.

What hardware will work with the ABB Ability™ edge software?

The edge software is tested against Ubuntu Linux. The hardware must have secure boot and TPM 2.0. Currently supported hardware includes: B&R Automation 3100, HPE Proliant DL380, HPE GL10.

Which plug-ins are available today on the ABB Ability™ edge?

Before answering this question it is important to understand that the Digital team provides the Ability™ edge software to divisions, who then add their own software functionality. They then combine that with hardware that’s appropriate for their applications and market segments and deliver a complete edge gateway to their customers in whatever way makes sense to them.

Does ABB have IoT-enabled devices that connect directly to the cloud?

Yes, we do. Those kinds of devices are produced by the division. For more information, please refer to 'Is the ABB Ability™ edge ready for the market?' above.

Can I pay for only some of the components provided by the platform?

The Ability™ Platform is a bundled offering that contains some Microsoft Azure components and some core digital Ability™ Platform components that together bring immediate value out of the box. However, you are only required to pay for what you use.

Which accounts have access to the subscription and account data associated with an Azure account?

The subscription and account data management is handled by the respective account under which the subscription was created.

How are accounts with access to subscription and account data added to the access level?

The user accounts must be added by specific request from the BL. No one will be added otherwise.

What are the limitations for Azure account and subscription names?

The max character length for a subscription name is 50 characters.

Cost

How much does the platform cost and where can I get "one"?

The platform is not a physical item and is not sold to external ABB customers as is. The Divisions sell digital solutions/applications that are built on top of the platform.

Architecture

Why do we have Information Model? What is the advantage of creating types and enforcing object models to adhere to types?

In our domain our systems and devices have a lot of knowledge about their configuration, surroundings and the data that they produce. In order to not have to send this information with each and every set of data that we handle all of this can be encoded into the Information Model or, more specifically, Object Models.

The Object Models are then used to validate the data being sent from the devices and systems but is also used to guide and structure the access from the user side to that data.

To make those Object Models coherent and comply to the specification of how the data is sent we allow BLs to define types for them. So when a new device or system of that type is created all the knowledge is already present and can be used to instantiate an Object Model of a specific type.

Why don't just separate data in different database collections instead of storing them separated by tenant annotation?

Having a separate database or collection for each tenant has significant advantages, like: configuration flexibility (per tenant retention period, throughput, etc.), simplification of some management tasks (like removing tenant, or moving it to a different Ability Instance).

There are also some minor disadvantages like additional complexity when adding new tenant or managing access to storages from services (e.g. connection strings), etc.

However, most importantly, it had a significant cost disadvantage for a scenario with many small tenants due to the Azure pricing model. The smallest instance of TSI Gen1 or Cosmos DB is often way too big for small tenant's needs. When one instance of storage keeps data of 10 tenants, then the price of 9 storage instances is avoided.

Azure pricing model is improving for some services, like with Cosmos DB collections sharing RU limit, which makes collection per tenant approach attractive again. In other cases it is still having fixed cost like in TSI Gen2 (Data Processor Unit) that can't be shared across databases.

What is the relationship between Solution, application and tenant. How do they come together?

Solution is something that brings value to ABB customers. For example - Predictive maintenance of equipment. Solutions are realized via one or more applications. Applications are registered under solutions in Ability platform and share the authorization rules (grants) defined by the solution.

Tenants are ABB customers. Tenants define the identity providers that are allowed to be used. A tenant is associated with a solution when a contract is defined between the solution and tenant. Only when a contract is defined, tenant users are allowed to access solution resources.

A device belongs to both a solution and a tenant. A device can be registered only to a solution, however it won't be able to send any data to the platform until a tenant association is made to the device.

Why did we decide to develop AuthZ?

Authorization in Ability is centered around "object model". Each Edge can have multiple object models for itself or devices behind it. Such Edge then sends telemetry data to IoT Hub only for object models that it "owns".

On the ingestion AuthZ verifies that device identity owns object model for which it sends telemetry message to prevent devices from spoofing each other telemetry data. On the northbound APIs AuthZ verifies that principal (device, app or user) is authorized to perform requested operation on object models based on grant rules (filter or graph traversal).

Such granular authorization capability with domain awareness is not possible using standard Azure resources.

Why having multiple planes (Global, Region, Instance)? Why not just one big Instance for all solutions and tenants?

Azure PaaS services (like IoT Hub, Event Hub, etc.) do not scale up infinitely, i.e. with more and more data, Ability Platform will hit one of the Azure PaaS service limitations sooner or later. To alleviate those limitations, Azure service could be deployed multiple times in single Ability Platform Instance (with some additional deployment and management complexity). Businesses however indicated that some of their biggest customers require dedicated Instance.

Therefore while big Instance is great from a cost perspective, separate Instances are still required.

With multiple Instances, some services should not be duplicated, like endpoint where devices can discover to which Instance they can connect (DPS), globally unique device identifiers generator or automated way of issuing device certificates. Those services are located in Global plane.

There are more services that should be shared across Instances but they have to be physically located in a certain geographical region (like Germany or China) due to different data jurisdiction laws, which precludes Global plane.

This led to the creation of Region plane for functionalities like identity and access management (Principal Manager) or definitions management (Definitions Registry). Note that temporarily Region and Instance are deployed together. The next step is to have single Region for all Instances in particular data jurisdiction region.

Why do we need to use Azure AD B2C?

Authentication requirements include users from enterprises (using ex. Azure AD), users from MyABB and individual users. Azure AD B2C allows to configure the identity providers per tenant including social providers such as Google, Facebook etc. and orchestrating the login flow. Further, customization in Azure AD B2C allows to augment the "claims" with platform grants so that post authorization, the issued token already contains everything needed for authorization.

Why did we introduce DPP? What is the problem that it solves?

Devices can send telemetry data that is compressed, invalid or for object model that sending device does not own. Data Processing Pipeline addresses that through configurable steps to decompress, validate the content and authorize the device.

Why do we have different data paths - Hot, Warm and Cold?

Applications that are built on top of Ability Platform need data for very diverse use cases. Quickly it becomes clear that they cannot be satisfied with one type of "storage". On the other hand, it wouldn't be realistic to implement all possible kinds of data storage.

Luckily from the diversity of use cases, three groups emerged that Businesses wanted to have addressed first: notifications, queries and analytics, this laid foundation for Hot, Warm and Cold Paths.

There are other requirements for storage though, especially around different "flavors" of Warm, that are currently actively being discussed with Businesses (see Storages) or the idea of sending data to Business specific storage (through configurable Router).

How do our solutions work when we may lose our connection to the cloud is broken due to unforeseen circumstances like long internet outages, network failures or outages caused due to cyber-attacks?

The exact ways this is handled will be determined by the capabilities of the edge or directly connected device, as we discussed in the session, ABB and various product offerings have been delivering data from on-premise to off-premise for many years so connection losses and outages are not new in most cases, the data is buffer, in some cases where a historian module is part of the strategy data is compressed or streamlined using lossless compression algorithms, in other cases, the data is buffered to files. If the duration of the outage is longer than the technology can buffer or manage data, then a data outage may occur, each solution must decide on the tolerance of an outage they can handle and the receiving application must also be aware of the concepts of outages and data quality just like in any distributed environment. The ABB Ability™ Platform also supports partially connected deployment scenarios.

Can ABB Ability™ support connections to equipment provided by our competitors?

The first opportunity is to be able to connect to ABB Equipment, however, we recognize that there is a very large installed base of non-ABB equipment. The Business Areas have developed modules for the ABB Ability™ Edge that provide connections to equipment that supports industrial protocols such as OPC Classic, OPC-UA, Modbus/TCP and will likely add additional protocols if there is a market requirement that justifies the development costs.

Taking into consideration the ongoing evolution of Edge computing towards the abstraction level and simplicity of AWS and Azure computing, what's the view on the industry applications by exposing APIs and operating much more as a "serverless" gateway provider or adapting our applications to the existing hardware on the market?

We are always looking at future architectures and changes. The specifics in this area will come from solution requirements as defined by the Businesses and the Digital. In general, we have always look at way to insulate our solutions from the underlying technology so that we can adapt and make changes. We also need to keep in mind the ABB Minimum Cybersecurity requirements which must be met for all products and solutions.

Security and Privacy

How does ABB protect customer data (on-premises or in the cloud)?

ABB is committed to deploying the best cybersecurity technologies at every level (device, gateway, and cloud). These cybersecurity technologies take into account the specific needs of Operational Technology (OT), which are more demanding than those from the world of Information Technology (IT). We believe that customers own their data, and they should know what ABB will be doing with it. Customers also need to provide consent before we share any of their data. Lastly, we respect the intellectual property (IP) of our customers. We don’t ask customers of ABB Ability™ solutions to cede their IP rights to us when they use our digital solutions.

What security measures are in place for the platform?

The platform is protected via a variety of industry standard service, including:

• User access management
• Anti-Malware software
• Secure firewall protection
• Secured communications

Surrounding this are Microsoft provided services that continuously monitors servers, networks, and applications to detect threats. This multipronged threat-management approach uses intrusion detection, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack prevention, penetration testing, behavioral analytics, anomaly detection, and machine learning to constantly strengthen its defense and reduce risks.

Is the data secured on the platform?

Yes, data is secured at many levels.

• User access is strictly defined and controlled.
• Communications between devices and the ABB Ability™ Platform uses authenticated and encrypted communication.
• Data storage is segmented by site and cannot be seen by users without express permission.
• Data is stored in a proprietary format, precluding access by congenital database tools.

How is the data communicated to the platform secured?

The communications relies on standards based security that authenticates and encrypts the communications using Secure Web Socket communications (HTTPS), Certificate Based Security (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS).

Can one customer see another customer’s data?

No, data is stored by the customer. User access rights do not permit one customer to see another customer’s information.

How is personal information managed on the platform?

Storage of personal information is currently not supported. It is the project/implementation team's responsibility to ensure that personal information is not transferred to the ABB Ability™ Platform.

What is the cybersecurity law in China?

The cybersecurity law in China took effect on June 1st, 2017 which requires the data collected/generated from the operation of “critical information Infrastructure operator” to be stored in China and if it is required to be transferred out, it is subject to government approval.

Does the Ability™ Platform meet the cybersecurity law in China?

Yes, the ABB Ability™ Platform fulfills this requirement. We store the data (according to customer needs/law) in China. We already have the ABB Ability™ Cloud Platform on Microsoft Azure China. Currently, a number of divisions are working on localizing their ABB Ability™ solutions to China.

What is GDPR?

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation in European Union (EU) law on data protection and privacy for all individual citizens of the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA). It also addresses the transfer of personal data outside the EU and EEA areas.

What about GDPR compliance?

GDPR is applied at the application/solution level and needs to be met at that level. For further explanation, please contact your digital lead.

Is the Platform audited against Security and Availability Trust Service Principles?

Yes, because the Platform is built on Microsoft Azure it is audited at least annually and is thus ISO/IEC 27001 certified.

Why do we need to use vNETs for cloud deployment?

ABB MCSR (Minimum Commercial Security Requirements) requires attack surface reduction. Locking down resources within a vNET allows to hide the resources from public internet and provides verifiable security for the cloud resources.

Why don't we use Zero trust instead of vNETs?

Zero trust means every entity performs authentication and authorization at every hop. While this allows to save cost in terms of vNET costs, zero trust can cause performance issues due to 1) Overhead of additional authentication and authorization 2) Routing over public internet rather than cloud provider back-haul network.

Of course, more study is required to evaluate zero trust and the trade-offs thereby.

As in edge computing, security is also a priority, Is ABB looking over any security design/architecture framework for eg:- implementing Linux kernel security? And what about communications security -5g/wireless security

ABB follows MCSR which is derived from many security standards, for additional information, please look at the MCSR for interface facing solutions. The Digital Cyber Security leads for the Business are also a good source of future trends.

Customers

How do I get a quote for a customer request based on the platform?

We suggest reaching out to your designated business/divisions digital leads.

Can we import our solutions onto a customer’s existing platform?

Yes and no. This depends on the solution and its deployment strategy. For more information please contact your businesses product/solution group that builds the solution.

What should we tell customers about the ABB Ability™ Platform?

It’s important to tell customers about the solutions we have developed for their industry because this is what they will actually be adopting. This is the “what”, the platform is the “how” (the way we make the solutions). Knowing that the ABB Ability™ Platform is built from industry-standard technologies makes it easier for customers to potentially integrate our solutions into others they have already deployed. System integrators such as Accenture, Wipro, HCL, etc. that are certified developers on Microsoft Azure, IBM Watson and SAP HANA will find it easy to develop additional applications that interoperate with ABB Ability™ Solutions.

How do I respond to customer questions about a stand-alone cloud?

An instance may meet their needs. Within technical limits, one instance can be used to accommodate one application for one customer, multiple customers for one application, multiple applications/customers across divisions. Today this would have to be designed on the application level (i.e. by the BL development team). The upcoming feature of multitenancy will make it easier because the platform will provide basic support for multi-customer and multi-application deployments in one platform instance.

Will ABB Ability™ Platform customers be able to monitor event hubs and connect directly to the different storage locations?

In general, no. Clients will not have direct access to most of the Azure resources. The only exception is that clients can request temporal access to a service bus topic serving BL-specific data. This is facilitated by the Data Access Hot Data API. Aside from that, the only way to get data out of the cloud portion of the Platform is to use the Ability™ APIs exposed through the API Gateway.

Strategy

Will every business equally benefit from the Ability™ Platform?

This truly depends on the business. The intention is for every business to benefit from everything that the ABB Ability™ Platform offers. However, it is up to the business to take advantage of the components and services of the platform to create the best solution possible for their customers.

Do we have the capabilities to reach our company goals for Digital?

Yes, actually after an in-depth analyzes compared to our competitors: Siemens, Schneider Electric, and Emerson we found that we are roughly comfortable with the industries we cover, solution numbers we have, and utilities we’ve created. Not only that, but we have chosen technology (like Microsoft Azure) to work with that will benefit ABB in the long run. With technology like Microsoft Azure, it will bring us tremendous speed and agility.

Is the platform open for 3rd party developers to create their own solutions?

Unfortunately, at this point it is not.

What are the main growth opportunities for ABB Ability™ ?

The main growth opportunities for ABB Ability™ are with technological and digital advancement in the operations process. Meaning ABB Ability™ digitalizes the journey/steps customers take that ends with them in the operations phase. This includes steps like: learning that ABB has something you might need, how to buy the materials, how to design the product, etc. Examples of these digital services are empower, ABB Ability Marketplace™, and Robotstudio®. Empower which is an E-commerce platform that was acquired from GE Industrial Systems. This platform includes a product catalogue where customers, resellers, and distributors can by products directly from ABB online. The ABB Ability Marketplace™ is a place where ABB can sell software application as a one-time sell or as a subscription online. Robotstudio® allows customers to design their deployment of their products and essentially saves both time and money.

Are there plans for ABB Ability™ to partner with other companies?

Yes, we are pursuing partnerships with other technology companies that we believe provide unique strengths and add to our ecosystem of developers who can help our customers.

What is the digital group doing to support ABB?

For the most part our team is providing a platform that is available globally and is properly maintained. We want to help shape and guide the ABB Ability™ portfolio using cross business solutions to help bring people together. Also, we want to scale our Marketplace to businesses and partners. Extend our digital partnerships with Microsoft, HPE, IBM, and create mutual partnerships with their existing partners.

What differentiates the ABB Ability™ Platform from IIoT competitors like Siemens, Schneider or Rockwell?

Our value proposition is based on selling solutions. ABB is known for our engineering and expertise and that is what we have focused and challenged our business to achieve. The platform team is focused on developing core technology once and operating the technology on behalf of the Business so they can focus their engineering talents on the real customer problems and developing and creating customer solutions.

The ABB Ability™ Platform is not sold directly to customers, it is just an enabler for our Business Areas/Divisions to develop applications more quickly, and the platform becomes one component of this solution. The key differentiator from a customer perspective is how we solve their business problem; what applications do we have that solve their problems. For this, you can check the ABB Ability™ Solutions catalog or contact your Digital lead.

While every IIoT Platform provider has similar services provided by Microsoft or Amazon, the key differentiators are in services added by ABB: These include:

• Data Access: A single access point that abstracts the underlying data stores. In a generic platform it is up top the developer to understand what data store is used for which purpose and to handle these inside their platform.
• Information Model/Digital Twin: This is a single point to describe all information, both contextual information and configuration, about either devices or structures. This provides the ability for applications to discover, access, and share information from devices or systems via shared information models.
• Built in Multitenancy: The ABB Ability™ Platform implements full multitenancy to segregate customer data without adding additional cost or, more important, complexity to application development. Core services from native Cloud providers handle multitenancy by having separate data stores for each data store which means additional costs.
• Intercloud. We recognize that like customer equipment comes from multiple vendors, we are dealing with multiple cloud environments from our Customer’s perspective. The ABB Ability™ Platform contains the capability to have secure cloud-to-cloud integration to applications that run in other cloud environments.
• Security by design: Built in compliance to ABB’s Minimum Cyber Security Requirements (MCSR) and ABB’s Data Manifesto.
• Role Based Access Control (RBAC) or Principal Manager: This is a core component to satisfying both Multitenancy and MCSR compliance. RBAC provides granular role based access for tenants and data. It can be federated with both Customer and public (Microsoft, Google or LinkedIn, for example) authentication that supports the OpenId Connect or Oath 2.0 standards to provide Single Sign On (SSO) capabilities.

ABB’s use of comprehensive cybersecurity technologies to protect the devices and data of its systems reassure customers that all is being done to prevent and curtail malicious attacks on their connected systems. Beyond that, ABB’s position on data ownership (customers own their data), transparency on what we do with customer data, and putting customers in control over who they want to share that data with is industry leading. We furthermore acknowledge our customers’ rights to use their intellectual property in the way that they see fit. At the end, our customers really expect solutions, not platforms, and we should be able to switch our discussions with customers from technology to business needs.

What are the major ABB Ability™ Platform development needs for larger adoption across ABB? What are exciting new digital solutions that are being built on top of the ABB Ability™ Platform?

It always starts with the business need, and technology will follow to supply a solution. We always welcome business use cases to further drive the Platform adoption. Most ABB solutions can be augmented with cloud-based data collection and analysis, not always the value achieved is an improvement Customers and willing to pay extra for.
Not everything is a development improvement, and this question varies based on the solutions and needs for each business, but in general cost is an always an issue, anything that add costs into the cost of a device especially when the device has a very low price point can potentially hurt adoption, to combat this we need to continue scale out the number of devices connected to the system. Improvement by reduction in downtime for updates and upgrades. Any down time while in production is something that we can always improve.
At its heart, ABB is a hardware and service company. A significant number of solutions we have are primarily geared towards extending and preserving our traditional products and to extend our service offerings. Other companies, such as Schneider and Siemens also derive significant revenues from pure software applications, and this is an area where ABB has the potential to improve. In terms of new and exciting solutions, all of the Business Areas are launching new solutions. Robotics, for example, just released Connected Services. EL has launched Asset Manager and Energy Manager.

Are we porting our existing on-premise solutions to the Cloud?

The answer is “Yes” if the business divisions see this as a value for the customers. There are solutions which are best suited to be onCloud and then some are most suited for OnPrem. The direction of ABB is to move to cloud as much as required to take advantage of the benefits of Cloud. Cloud applications provide new capabilities such as Machine Learning or easier integration of information across applications, and the focus is on that. The ABB's strategic vision is to make things digitally connected where it makes sense to drive incremental value to our customers, if on premise is the right location then we keep features on premise.

Analytics is a primary engine in IoT. How does ABB manage/address the development of analytic capabilities in ABB Ability?

A decision was made to decentralize the analytics execution to business areas and allow the platform to only focus until data storage and access to the stored data. Each Business determines, the right path and how to take analytics products to market. As an example analytics in PA is managed as part of the PA Digital organization and analytics offerings are available as part of the Genix offering, EL has developed a common core and will roll out product solutions based on the common core which includes the analytics components that fit their markets. The Ability Platform will continue to provide operational analytics for operation of the platform and supports the needs of the Business with common technology.

Sustainability is a very important topic. How can automation processes help customers on their journey toward more sustainable operations in terms of environmental sustainability as well as safety and business continuity?

Great question and of course this is a goal of ABB overall and an objective from our CEO, I would suggest reviewing the information found here jointly developed with Microsoft,
but in general what we are doing within the development of the platform is allowing our Business Areas and Divisions to continue to work towards the overall business objectives in the area of sustainability.

Why are our cloud solutions expensive and what is being done about this?

In terms of cost, there are several aspects. The cost of cloud solutions can be high initially but become less costly as sales of solutions increase. A cloud platform has two components: a relatively fixed cost for infrastructure components and a variable cost that is dependent on the amount of data stored. The fixed cost, with required security measures, is spread between the number of customers that use the platform, so the more customers, the less cost per customer. It’s the sole reason that the ABB Ability™ Platform was developed as a multi-tenancy system. We designed and developed for scale to support business growth for years. The variable cost is dependent on the amount of data – and the cost of storing data must equate to value, and that is driven by the Business Area solutions. The available technology and innovation in a cloud environment is exponentially increasing, particularly in the areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Virtual (VR) or Augmented Reality (AR). These technologies lead to increased value for our customer.
As we move to more innovative solutions, we also must make sure we shift our thinking from selling products to selling value, which is a key part of Digital transformation. In addition to the above, there are other components that need to be discussed with customers when talking about costs. These include:

• Data integrity. The cloud data is redundant in multiple physical locations in a particular region.
• Operational support. Cloud-based solutions are monitored on a 24x7 basis by a team of experts to minimize any disruptions.
• Security. Each connection on the Ability Platform is authenticated and authorized, and stored data is kept secure – which adds to complexity and cost. In terms of pragmatic approaches, the platform team is targeting lowering overall platform costs by 30% in 2021, and we have already improved our overall discount we receive from Microsoft this past year.

Google recently said that it's partnering with Siemens to advance AI deployments in industrial use cases. What will be ABB solution to counter this?

ABB has partnered with Microsoft to further extend our AI capabilities. Some Divisions also have agreements with smaller companies to use specific applications in their verticals. Link.

What about NB-IoT or 5G?

Both of these are technologies that will come into play with customer adoption. ABB is, at its core, a technology company and we continue to invest in new and emerging technologies. One example is work that is ongoing in Germany on 5G. Ultimately the support for these technologies is driven by Customer demand, and any solutions developed will be based on this.

Will Ability leverage innovations or applications from ABB IS?

I think it is fair to say that in the area of Analytics, for one example, there is a strong desire to leverage best practices. That said, there is a significant difference once you get to the detailed level between Analytics used by IS and, for example, Predictive Maintenance on an offshore Wind Farm. Where there are synergies, they will be leveraged. On the broader level, there are a number of internal IS solutions, such as ServeIS, that are used by our Business Areas and there is a strong desire to link this information to our emerging cloud-based service offering. Master Data is another good example of interactions between IS and ABB Ability.

The ABB Ability Marketplace™ has multiple apps sold as SaaS, many of which do not have a bridge between them. Shouldn’t there be a minimum level of interoperability between them by way of a bridge - either as API or single-sign on?

Yes, there should. This is an evolutionary process and is becoming easier with the possibility to federate ID providers. The capability to provide this is part of the ABB Ability™ Platform, which supports (get list of supported standards). Other applications in the ABB Ability Marketplace™ will likely evolve to this same point over time, dependent on the demand from Customers and the priorities of the Business Area/Division development priorities.

What would happen in the future if we decide to move away from Microsoft? Will the investment in our applications be lost?

The platform has been developed with a set of standard interfaces abstracting the complexity of technology underneath, and all solutions are built using these interfaces.
We may, for various reasons, evaluate technology, which could allow us to do a component switch-out in the current technology for cost, functionality or performance reasons. It is unlikely that we will move away from Microsoft in the foreseeable future, but we may elect to support other cloud platforms. Such as what we are doing with Huawei in China. The use of standard interfaces ensure that there will be minimal, if any, impact from the solution side.

What kind of collaboration we have with Dassault systems?

Information on ABB’s partnership can be found here.

Is there a possibility for Digital Twins becoming a Sales portfolio within ABB other than being addon component or enabler?

This is a commercial decision and would be up to the Business Area or Division. That said, by itself, a Digital Twin by itself offers no customer value. Customers would need to see value, which comes from applications built on top of the Digital Twin.

Is it fair to say any object representation available whether on cloud or edge is one or other form of digital twin?

Yes, any object representation on the cloud or edge is part of the Digital Twin.

Is there a plan to bring in analytics and ML for the device data flowing in our cloud and share the insights to the client?

Yes, every Business Line is investing in this technology. The usage of the technologies will vary by the product/use case.

How will 5G impact IIoT, and does ABB have any focus on 5G?

The biggest impact that we will see from 5G is a significant increase in the amount of data which can be collected, in a cost-effective fashion, from devices. This will lead to collecting data from field devices that were previously not available, and new findings and increased accuracy of data analysis and AI/ML algorithms. It also has the potential to be misused and drive costs to the point where it is not effective, so a careful bal- ance is required to ensure the right data is still considered not just all data because it can now be collected.
ABB is, at its core, a technology company and we continue to invest in new and emerg- ing technologies. One example is work that is ongoing in Germany on 5G. Ultimately, the support for these technologies is driven by Customer demand, and any solutions developed will be based on this.

Do you see ways to monetize security?

This is a very difficult question to answer in a general sense. Security is an expectation when dealing with any IIoT environment, so it is difficult to monetize it in any general sense. That said, ABB has offered security audits and consulting in the past. This should be checked with your Business Line Digital lead, or your Business Line/Division Security lead.
We can also think of security as “data integrity” and “data availability”, these situations could potentially see additional value-added services including our product offering such as redundant data storage, storage to different regions to improve over- all availability and reliability. With our digital offering we have the potential to scale in this area to add features without compromise to what should be fundamental capabilities.

How will ABB address Predictive domain experience?

The short answer is that it takes both sets of knowledge to address this. Some parts are very generic – a mass of data can be analyzed to identify anomalies, but unless the data is cleansed and has some degree of reasonableness checking done then there is the potential that results will be inaccurate, and may prove to be very costly. Addition- ally, predictive maintenance, other than in a very simplistic form, is based on a model, and models need to be constantly tuned to adapt to changing conditions. ABB has a long history of model-based control, which typically sees large improvements initially. However, as the process evolves to cater for these improvements, the model needs to be adjusted, otherwise the improvements degrade over time. This is true with any AI model – without the industry experience to validate the results, and without the continued improvement of the models, the results will not match predictions. Each Business Area is focusing on their own Analytics capabilities.

What about Blockchain?

First, let’s address what Blockchain is. While many associate Blockchain with crypto- currency, it is a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across a network. This means that it is ideally suited to address peer-to-peer networking of devices, which is the future of IIoT – devices communicating directly with each other, not just device to cloud or device to edge. As IIoT evolves, Blockchain will form an integral part of solutions. That said, it will take time to become a standard in all prod- uct offerings.
ABB has been investing in Blockchain technology since 2018, and Motion, in 2019, delivered Digital Service Book, ABB’s first customer facing Blockchain application. This ap- plication collects sensor data and preserves the immutability of the information. ABB continues to invest in Blockchain, and this is one of the technologies that looks to be key to IIoT moving forward.

What's the roadmap for ABB Ability?

The platform is not directly sold to customers; hence there is no roadmap at this level. What provides actual value are the applications sold – and the roadmap for those needs to come from the Business Lines or Divisions.

Considering the vast scope of our products and solutions, especially the use of digital twins in the fields of troubleshooting and service or gathering data and product behavior, what is the general strategy in building digital twins?

Digital Twins is an area where ABB is currently ahead of most competitors but is also an area that has a tremendous potential. Product responsible teams can easily create models for the equipment that they produce. These models are agreed to by representatives of the Business Lines that are part of the Digital Architecture Council. Digital Twins are also extensible towards different Personas. For example, there can be location models representing a customer site that can be defined by an implementation team. Product groups for Digital applications such as Asset Management or Energy Management can abstract the underlying models to create new models specific to their applications. Digital Twins are essentially models – and ABB Ability™ Platform allows the creation of extensible models to support this.

As ABB embraces more and more the IIoT concept, do we have the vision of selling for example "Horsepower Output" instead of motors and motor services? How far are we from this vision?

This is an area that the Divisions and Digital Leads have been exploring as growth opportunities. ABB has been doing this in Services in some Business Lines for years – creating a “pay-for-performance” model based on Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), but the opportunities are limitless. Motors and Drives, for example, could be leased based on running hours. There are a lot of opportunities like this – and a lot of work to make the details work. Your Digital Leads can certainly help you understand the direction that they are headed.

Competition

Does the platform compete with Predix, Lumada, Mindsphere?

ABB believes that no single IoT platform will provide all the capabilities customers need. Instead, we believe we will see an “intercloud” of applications that interoperate across multiple IoT platforms. An ABB Ability™ Solution will be able to be connected to one running on those other platforms provided that APIs and data formats are compatible.

How do we compete with IBM's solutions (Maximo)? or Oracle? or SAP?

We don't compete with these platforms directly. Our reasoning is similar to how we view Mindsphere. Please refer to 'Does the platform compete with Predix, Lumada, Mindsphere?' for this reasoning.

Do we compete with Siemens’ “intranet” solutions for data storage?

Our solutions can connect to an internal ABB server by connecting the edge to the Azure Cloud. For more information please refer to 'Can the edge device send data back to an internal ABB server?' under Platform Components + Services to answer this question.

How do we stop competitors from using the same commercial technology?

We cannot and we don’t want to since customers using those technologies attract more developers and more innovation. This will make it more difficult for GE to keep up, as its Predix environment is largely built on proprietary middleware technology. Technologies that are adopted by a broad ecosystem usually win out over narrow, more proprietary ones: e.g., Japanese iMode or Windows Mobile vs Android, OS/2 vs Windows.

How’s what we’re doing and what Mindsphere and Azure offers different?

Many platforms are based on Azure and this by itself is never a differentiation. ABB differentiates based on our core platform values of flexibility, intelligence, security, interoperability.

Any data on how/what our competitors doing in terms of edge computing?

This question can be only answered at high level else requires a detailed comparison with competition products. For IIoT Edges, all the competition products do support Edge computing. This includes multiple protocol support for connecting to south bound devices like LoRA, ModBus, SNMP, UPnP, OPC UA, BACnet etc., framework for hosting/ running customer data computing CPU applications easily, data visualization tools, storage etc. Each of ABB industries has slightly different needs in terms of scaling and footprints, so in a short summary this is difficult to cover. Clearly ABB and all competitors are looking at way to provide on-premise capabilities, but also scalability and ease of application management and solution expansion by adding cloud capabilities which exploit the aggregated on-premise data.

What is a Digital/ABB Ability™ solution?

A digital solution can either be a product or service that contains hardware augmented with software. This product/service can then be sold to solve specific customer problems: Robotics, a connected drive, smart sensors, etc. In addition, the product/service can be from ABB and/or 3rd parties. External customers also have the option to purchase the product/service as a one-time purchase that will then be operated entirely by the customer or on a subscription basis.

Who creates the products/solutions for external customers?

The key thing to understand here is that the Digital team provides the software and support (CST) that is needed for the production of the solutions. However, the businesses and divisions are responsible for creating the solutions for external customers. For any questions pertaining to device management, solution features, etc. please contact your digital lead.

Are all ABB Ability™ solutions connected to the cloud?

No, but increasingly, many ABB Ability™ solutions will have the option (if the customer chooses) to allow selected data to be shared in the cloud. This will enable additional services as well as access to third party applications and other platforms.

Are all digital solutions ABB Ability™ solutions?

Yes, by combining our full range of digital solutions and services under the unified ABB Ability™ banner, we will significantly simplify the customer experience, while also leveraging the full breadth and depth of our portfolio.

Is an ABB Ability™ solution a product or a service?

It can be both or either. Please refer to 'What is a Digital/ABB Ability™ solution?' for more information.

How many ABB Ability™ solutions does ABB offer?

Today, we have over 220 unique solutions that have been deployed for customers. They include offerings we have had for a long time such as our system 800xA distributed control system, as well as more recently announced solutions such as EV-Charging. Every business at ABB is also busy developing new solutions.

Does the ABB Ability™ Platform compete with the MOM solution?

These two are not supposed to compete with each other. They are meant to address totally different scopes. From an Enterprise customer view, an IMOM (Integrated MOM) would need the entire ABB Ability™ Platform capabilities and our current MES/MOM.

What is a domain specific solution on the Ability™ Platform?

We are taking advantage of ABB’s domain expertise (oil & gas, pulp and paper) and providing a specific solution. You don’t want to develop these solutions using completely separate digital technology. We are using the ABB Ability™ Platform (the common toolbox) the same piece of enabling technology. This gives us domain specific solutions on horizontal technology like the Ability™ Platform.

What is the 800xA solution for connecting to the Ability™ Platform?

800xA is OPCUA enabled, so it can connect through the standard IoT hub connect. It also acts as the edge gateway by using the IA edge as a component of the system. Also, 800xA v6 contains a purpose-built redundant edge Publisher service that interacts with a counterpart in the IA edge. This creates a reliable and secure connection that is fully managed from within the 800xA system and maintains the information model into the edge and cloud.

How does ABB deliver expertise via ABB Ability™ solutions?

ABB has acquired unparalleled expertise in information ($400B+ installed base, contextual information, and 125 years of experience), technology (materials, mechanical, electrical, and computer science), and know-how (industry/domain experience and regional experience). Our solutions offer this expertise in various increments, so that customers can know more, do more, and do better together (in collaboration with ABB or others).

Why do some solutions offer advanced optimization and others don't?

The Ability™ brand name is applied to digital solutions in general. This doesn't specifically reference advanced optimization.

Can edge software run on a 800xA server?

Currently, No. The edge software requires Ubuntu and a hardware TPM chip, which is not currently supported by system 800xA.

How does ABB Ability™ differ from MOM and SCADA?

SCADA is meant for OT networks. However, Digital Enterprise needs to fuse various networks for Digital: Assets, Safety, IT, Supply Chain, Business, Labs, Engineering, Spatial, etc. For the differences about MOM please refer to 'Does the ABB Ability™ Platform compete with the MOM solution?' above.

Do we have a list of all ABB Ability™ products and solutions and a brief explanation about their purpose? Are there examples of Predictive Maintenance?

The ABB Ability™ Solutions catalog provides information on all solutions that fit into the digital space. This page is maintained by the Business Areas. All the Business Areas have examples of Asset Management which leads to predictive maintenance as part of their portfolio of solutions.

How do you perform Lock-Out Tag-Out for ABB Equipment?

This would be a decision for the Business and the applications developed by the business for a specific market. In simple terms, the Ability Platform would have an information model of the switchgear device and represent this as a digital twin, the platform and the solution have read/write capabilities to allow the handshakes to insure lock out of the device. There is also a safety aspect to this, and each Division would need to ensure that all regulatory, ABB and Customer standards are followed, as in any Safety solution or process.

Does ABB have off the shelf seamless integration between our own products across PA/EL/MO for any industry?

This has been a focus area for these three Business Lines, but it is also a very general question. For more information you should check with your Digital Leads on what is available that might fit your specific use case.

When many vendors are integrating into a solution at some point - who takes the main responsibility for the design and the solution?

This question is no different than any other system that ABB provides today. Every customer is different, so will ask ABB to take responsibility, others may want to architect the solution themselves or use a third part system integrator. Others may rely on consultant organizations to lead them through. IDC has published a study that shows that Automation vendors are more trusted with IIoT solutions than traditional IS consultants.

How do I get started on the Ability™ Platform?

Contact either your Business Digital Architect or the ABB Ability™ Client success team.

About how much work is needed to make an application on the platform?

Please contact client success team (CST) and the team can walk you through your specific use case to help estimate the complexity and time required.

Can a customer or myself get a demo of the Ability™ Platform?

Please contact your Business or Division Digital Lead

What does on-boarding support mean?

On-boarding provides support for adopting the ABB Ability™ technology into an existing product, product line or business. The focus of on-boarding is to support how data can be collected from devices or systems, how it can be communicated to a cloud based storage or how a local gateway can be configured.

What do I need to do to start an ABB Ability™ on-boarding project?

The reason to start an on-boarding project is that using the ABB Ability™ Platform involves more than only a technical connection. In the end the technical connection will support a certain service offering to the customer. The overall purpose of the ABB Ability™ on-boarding project is therefore to develop that service offering and corresponding business model which will specify what the technical connection should do, for example in terms of which data should be selected to be uploaded.

What is required for a successful platform on-boarding project?

Successful ABB Ability™ on-boarding projects develop over the course of the project a good understanding of the customer needs, intended offering, and business model. Such projects are also well staffed with an experienced project manager and an effective governance through the project steering committee.

What comes after the ABB Ability™ Platform on-boarding project?

The ABB Ability™ Platform on-boarding project typically results in one or more pilots that demonstrate that the service offering is ready for release against acceptable risks. Based on this, the deployment of the connections can start to a wider range of customers and sites. This deployment effort should be considered a project in itself; part of the final stages of the platform on-boarding project. This deployment is more than the technical connections, but also includes the service offering through the sales organization.

How can I contribute to ABB Ability™, as a software developer in PA controller development.

The easiest way to do this is to contact you Technology Manager, who can point you to the right people in your Business Area or Division.